Institute of Pacific Relations

The White Man's Peace by No-Yong ParkReview by: Richard J. WalshFar Eastern Survey, Vol. 17, No. 18 (Sep. 22, 1948), pp. 219-220Published by: Institute of Pacific RelationsStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3022271 .

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rice collection campaign. The records of the Ministry of Agriculture show that 90.7 percent of the national

program of rice collection was accomplished by Janua? ry 31, 1948.4 By this date in 1947 only seventy-three percent of the rice collections had been made and the

campaign was never successfully terminated. In 1946 and 1947 the farmers defied their government and re? fused to turn in their full quota of rice, but this year local military government teams intervened. Military government personnel accompanied Japanese rice col- lectors into farm villages and backed up Japanese threats of sanctions. The rice collection was successful but the

implications of such action on occupation policy are evident. Military government participation of this kind

may result in gradual supersession of Japanese activities

by American officialdom. There is a delicate balance in the administrative

process in Japan. We seek efficiency in the Japanese government. As long as we are patient and encourage efficiency by advice rather than by direct participation, the balance remains undisturbed. The balance is upset when 2,000 military government officials in the field as- sume direct action in thousands of situations involving enforcement.

Modification of administrative structure in Japan will

serve to mitigate the inconsistencies presented by the

present pattern. Occupational structure should parallel

Japanese structure. If this were done, Eighth Army, I Corps, IX Corps, and the eight regions would have

to be relieved of military government functions. Clear, direct channels could then be established between the

expertise of SCAP and the forty-six prefectural teams.

This modification would so tighten the control of SCAP

over its forty-six field offices that there would be con-

siderably less assumption of enforcement responsibilities. It is significant that an informal organizational pattern has developed which follows the structure projected above. Military government officers in the field frequent-

ly by-pass intermediate echelons and seek the expert advice of SCAP (when they escape detection by their

intermediate commanders), and SCAP representatives often work directly with prefectural teams. It is usual

to find a divergence between structures informally de?

veloped and those elaborated through formal organ? izational practices. Ordinarily such divergence would

produce corrective interaction. But such normal develop? ment is obstructed in this instance by the inflexibility of military organization in peacetime.

There are, moreover, historical and psychological rea?

sons for the retention of Eighth Army, corps, and the

eight regions in the hierarchy of military government

organization. Military government is still regarded as a

mere phase of a military operation rather than as an

aspect of foreign policy; hence tactical echelons retain

control of military government functions. Further, in an

occupation, training for combat loses its appeal and

glamour; military government has a prestige which is

attractive to most regular army officers.

Analysis of behaviors of governance as they occur

at the prefectural level would indicate that progression toward self-rule is less evident than at the national

level. This is aggravated by the assumption of unauthor-

ized powers by field officials made inevitable by faulty administrative structure. It is further aggravated by the bewilderment with which prefectural officials tend

to face the completely new problems of government created by decentralization and by their dependence on

American officials for the solution of problems of local

autonomy never before faced by either the central or

the local governments of Japan. This dependence and

the response of Americans is real rather than apparent and will serve to delay the development of semi-au-

tonomous prefectural governments in Japan.

B O O K S ON THE PACIFIC AREA

THE WHITE MAN'S PEACE. By No-Yong Park. Boston:

Meador, 1948. 252 pp. $3.00.

Born in Manchuria, No-Yong Park was educated in the

United States and has taught and lectured here for sixteen

years. So it is not strange that he writes chiefly as a citizen

of the world rather than as an Asian. He argues that the

world must be organized under one authority for common se?

curity. He discards all the commonly accepted causes of war, such as nationalism and imperialism, and regards the "state of anarchy" as the sole cause of conflict. That the white man has made more wars than all the other races is due, he grants, to the lack of unity in Europe ever since the fall of Rome, while China and India have fortunately kept their unity for

many centuries. Dr. Park rejects the familiar notion that there is some Oriental magic that could cure human society. "There is a more practical guide for the building of international order in the short history of the United States than there is in tons of Oriental philosophy and literature." He believes that the main reason why there is not world peace is that the world is not like the United States, with an all-embracing central

government. For the most part the book traces the record of wars and

man's efforts for peace, from the ancient dcvice of single com- bat down through the League of Nations. It is a little unfortun- ate that the book was finished a year before its publication, so that it is not up to date in some respects, such as its refer- ences to Indian freedom, and the civil war in China.

In his last seventy pages Dr. Park takes up the making of

peace in Asia, and it is to the good that here he writes primar- ily as an Asian. He still believes that the problems of Asia can not be solved apart from the world's other problems. But these pages ring with some of the same notes of challenge to the white man that we heard in his earlier book, Retreat of the West. He scores the colonial powers and the early American betrayals of Korea. Because of "the complete inability of the western nations to set their own houses in order," he says 4 New York Times, February 15, 1948, 10:1.

SEPTEMBER 22, I 948 219

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firmly, "most subject peoples believe that the white men have forfeited not only their privilege to rule over other races, but their inherent right to rule over their own peoples." And there can be no peace in China as long as there is hostility between Russia and the United States. "One of these days the natives of Asia might say to both rival powers, as their rulers said to the missionaries in the olden days: 'We thought you came to help us out of poverty, ignorance and misrule. But now we see that you came to wage war against each other. If that is what you want, get out and fight in your own countries.' "

Thus in the end the voice is that of Asia after all, and the white men will do well to heed it. richard j. walsh

NEWS CHRONOLOGY

August 20 to September 2, 1948

August 20: China. Shopkecpcrs in Shanghai raise prices twenty to thirty percent in preparation for the placing of China's currency on a gold basis.

August 21: Japan. SCAP informs the Japanese Govern? ment that the latter shall assume control from September first of all port facilities at Tokyo, Yokohama, and Kobe not required by the occupation as a "part of the program to return to the Japanese responsibility for rebuilding Japanese economy."

August 21: Siam. The Government instructs its officials along the southern frontier to work in cooperation with Ma? layan authorities in the suppression of Communists.

August 23: Korea. The US Department of the Army an? nounces the recall to the US of General John R. Hodge, Com? mander of the US Army forces in Korea since V-J Day. He is succeeded by Major General John B. Coulter.

August 23: United States. Federal Judge Louis E. Good- man adds 2,000 names to a list of 2,900 Americans of Japanese ancestry who, having renounced American citizenship during the war, will have citizenship restored.

August 24: India. Hyderabad, alleging that India has con- ducted against it during recent months a campaign of "violent intimidation," petitions the UN Security Council to discuss its differences with India.

August 24: Korea. It is disclosed that President Rhee and General Hodge have signed an agreement providing that the US Military Commander will continue to train and equip Kor? ean constabulary and coast guard units and that the command of these forces, as well as the national police, will be the re? sponsibility of the US Commander until the agreement is terminated with the withdrawal of American forces in accord- ance with the UN General Assembly resolution.

August 25: Indonesia. The Dutch-sponsored provisional federal regime in Batavia informs the Republic of Indonesia that it must remove from Batavia all persons in the permanent service of the Republic, including delegates to the UN Good Offices Committee, because of "a definitely established link" between such persons and undesirable activities, such as opium smuggling and subversive propaganda.

August 26: Australia. A letter sent to principal wool deal? ers by the Commonwealth Bank of Australia states that the "loss of normal dollar earnings to Australia and the sterling area" has reached serious proportions as a result of the resale of Australian wool to the US for dollars by European dealers who, having paid in pounds, had agreed that the wool would be used for needy Europeans.

August 26: Korea. The White House announces that the Economic Cooperation Administration has been instructed to prepare in the next few months to take over the Korean aid program, now administered by the US Army.

August 27: Japan. Premier Hitoshi Ashida states that the Government is considering a bill that would bar Communists from holding public office.

August 27: Pakistan. "A grave emergency" is declared be? cause of the threat to economic life "arising out of the mass movement of population from and into Pakistan."

August 28: India. India informs Hyderabad that it has no right to seek intervention by the UN in the dispute with India because India regards the differences as "purely domestic."

August 28: Japan. At a meeting of the Allied Control Council, called at the request of the USSR member, the latter and the Australian and Chinese members express varying degrees of apprehension regarding curtailment of the activities of unions of Japanese government employees.

August 29: Siam. It is disclosed that the Government is preparing a bill to outlaw cultivation of opium poppies and a bill to roquire registration of addicts.

August 31: China. The Chinese Communist radio announc? es the formation of a "North China People's Government," to be the forerunner of a future "people's government" for all China.

August 31: Philippines. The Government announces that negotiations with the Hukbalahap for an amnesty will not be resumed.

September 1: China. Refusal of Chinese authorities to permit American planes to fly to Tihwa (Urumchi), capital of Sinkiang, is interpreted in some quarters as an extension of the Sino-USSR air agreement of 1939 whereby the Sino- Soviet Airline was reportedly given monopoly of air transport between Hami, Sinkiang, and Alma Ata, Soviet Kazakhstan.

September 2: China. It is announced that the National Government has notified the USSR of its desire that the air agreement of 1939 terminate in September 1949.

September 2: Indonesia. According to the Netherlands In? formation Bureau, exports from Indonesia, exclusive of those from territories of the Republic of Indonesia, amounted dur? ing the first half of 1948 to 2,234,000 tons, worth $160,312,- 000. Exports exceeded imports for the first time since Japan's surrender.

The Far Eastern Survey assumes no responsibility for the accuracy of items in the uNews Chronology." The chronology is based on reports in the New York Hcrald Tribune and the New York Times.

FAR EASTERN SURVEY

Editors: philip e. lilienthal, katrine r. c. GREENE, LAWRENCE K. ROSINGER

Editorial Assistant: elizabeth converse

PUBLISHED PORTNIOHTLY BY THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF PACIFIC RELATIONS, INC, 1 EAST 54TH ST., NEW YORK 22, n. y. ray lyman Wilbur, Chairman; william l. holland, Acting Executive Vice Chairman; donald b. straus, Treasurer; katrine r. c. greene, Acting See- retary; tillie o. shahn, Assistant Treasurer. annual subscription, $6.00; sinole copies, 25c.

The American Institute of Pacific Relations does not ex? press opinions on public affairs. Responsibility for state- ments of fact or opinion appearing in the far eastern survey rests solely with the authors. The editors are responsible for the selection and acceptance of articles.

220 FAR EASTERN SURVEY

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